Instagram Picture Menu

A helpful feature for foodies.

Project

Instagram already has some features that help foodies in discovering the restaurants including tagging the post to a restaurant and having a food tab on the explore section. However, foodies often find themselves on the restaurant page on Instagram searching for food names, often also going to the pictures that are tagged by other people. When they do not find enough information on the food, they often just find it through another app. Through a picture menu feature. however, foodies can find information about the food with more ease and discover new restaurants.

Details

Amanda Widjaja – Solo Case Study

Full Case Study

View full case study here

The Problem

More people than ever are now posting what they are eating on Instagram. As a result, there is an emerging a number of foodies who are consistently discovering new restaurants to eat in as well as food bloggers who wants to share their discovery of new restaurants.

From this, there are a few problems in the user’s journey when trying to discover, check or deciding on food on insta. Some of these problems include:

On the Platform

On the food post, it is hard to know what the food if not mentioned in the comments
On many restaurant profiles, people do not know their menu or the specific food on the post if not mentioned
“Is that really yummy looking food actually good?”

Outside of the Platform

Some restaurant menus do not have pictures
Hard to decide on what to order because don’t know if it’s good
Need to go to other apps for menu

How to solve the problems?

Instagram already has some features that help foodies in discovering the restaurants including tagging the post to a restaurant and having a food tab on the explore section. However, foodies often find themselves on the restaurant page on Instagram searching for food names, often also going to the pictures that are tagged by other people. When they do not find enough information on the food, they often just find it through another app. Through a picture menu feature however, foodies can find information about the food with more ease and discover new restaurants.

The picture menu should have a goal to:

On the Platform

Help foodies find out the names of each dish to choose to order
Help foodies share the dish to friends, and help friends discover new restaurants
Help restaurants share their menu

Outside of the Platform

Help foodies see the items on the menu and how they look like

Competitors'
Analysis

Many people go to Zomato to look for the images of food for the restaurant as well as the menu. Some of its features could be helpful to develop the Picture Menu.

Pros:

Menu original from restaurant
Categorised Menus
Photos categorised, easily see food
Has food suggestions in the restaurant

Cons:

Photos of food does not mention food name
Need to keep switching back to menu and photos to see price

Opportunities:

Instagram’s picture menu could be available on each restaurant’s profile
Each food picture tags can show the name and price

User Research

A short survey was conducted to analyse Instagram users and gain insight on their habits and attitudes towards posts in relation to food on Instagram, as well as their goals and processes they take towards discovering new restaurants and choosing what they order. A total number of 12 participants are recorded, ranging from age 19-31. 8 of the respondents considered themselves to be foodies.

Assumptions before the research:

Most people are discovering food more from friends’ posts (Correct, especially through Insta and Google)
People want to know what the food on the posts are (Correct, mostly wants to see name, price, some wants to see reviews)
People save the food they like for next time (Correct, most people screenshots the restaurant because of stories)
People often share food on posts and stories (Incorrect, mostly just stories)
People want to know how the food looks like before they order (Correct, presentation affects their order)
People share food because it is good and want to recommend to friends (Incorrect, most people want to share because it looks good)

Opportunities:

Tags for names, prices on food
Tags can be used in stories (plus review feature(?) )
Linking stories to food page
Implement review on each product
Have menu stand out in the restaurant’s profile
Have food suggestions on explore page

Full details on the User Research.

Results &
User Journey

The survey showed interesting results, including:

Most people post the food because it is aesthetically pleasing
Most people mention that they share their food mostly in stories
Everyone checks the menu before going to a restaurant they want
Most people find it useful to know what the food that they see on Insta is
Most people want to know the name and price of the food they see, reviews sometimes

Further research should include food bloggers as well as restaurant owners.

The two main personas that are analysed to be affected most by the feature will be the foodies (customers) and restaurant owners. User journey for both of them is essential in order to identify the parts of the feature. The two personas’ user journeys will be shown on the next slide.

User journey for Foodies & Restaurant Owners.

Findings

From the user research (survey and user journey maps), the following key findings are identified as those that will help the picture menu feature be successful.

The main points that the users will find useful:

Easy to access menu
Easy to see food name, price from different posts
Don’t need to move to another app for photos
Restaurants managing menus easily
Stories need to have food tagging features

The goal of the feature is to make it easy for users to discover, and know more about the restaurants’ food and to know the name of the food from others’ posts. To increase ease, the main elements in the feature are required: